


Looks Like a Girl but She's a Flame

by Galaxie



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: But mostly in part 2, F/M, This turned surprisingly action-y, and Daisy kinda stood in the light and didn't wanna move so i'm sorry, and somewhat angst-y, fitzsimmonssecretsanta, she's here a lot, thefitzsimmonsnetwork, this is still FitzSimmons-centric though, though mostly in the second part
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-01
Updated: 2017-01-01
Packaged: 2018-09-14 01:35:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9151003
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Galaxie/pseuds/Galaxie
Summary: (FitzSimmons Secret Santa for aosfangirl81! The prompt was "Healthy Fitzsimmons communicating and a strong, healthy, confident Simmons!")Hacking into a super-confidential database and robbing a gun store wasn't exactly how Jemma imagined spending her evening, but Mace always ruins everything: Fitz is missing, Mace won't tell her anything about it, and there's no way in hell Jemma Simmons is going to let her boyfriend in danger. They still have a lot to talk about.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AoSfangirl81](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AoSfangirl81/gifts).



> Hello hello hello!  
> So, turns out I'm late, as in, very very late, for the FitzSimmons Secret Santa. It looks like I'm kinda on time, but the truth is, this is only half of the gift... And basically this is just context, all the actual prompt-filling is in the second part. So of course, I apologize profusely to my giftee, aosfangirl81, and I promise you'll get the second part next weekend. Or, well, I'll do my best, but since it's already half-written, it should be fine! 
> 
> English is not my first language, and this is unbetaed, so it might be full of grammatical mistakes or typos. If you spot one, please let me know!!!
> 
> I hope you enjoy your gift, and I hope everyone enjoy this. Feel free to leave a comment, and come visit me on Tumblr if you want to, I'm meangalaxies over there!

“...and now we just have to plug this in...”

“...so the camera will be able to see virtually any kind of particles...”

“...including the ones from the other dimension, like AIDA!”

That was it. The big moment. For almost a month now, since Robbie had gone missing, in fact, they had been working on a way to discover what had happened to him, and possibly even bring him back. For now, their progress had been nonexistent, but they were finally on what seemed to be the right track. When Fitz and Coulson had been taken to the other side, AIDA had managed to create a portal, apparently being able to see what she was doing when no one else could. On this basis, Fitz had suggested creating a camera with the same technology as AIDA’s eyes, a camera that would record what was happening on the other side, in the other dimension – universe? Nobody knew what it was. However, between other missions and Jemma’s SADIST duties, they barely had any time to work on it, and they were only now putting the finishing touch.

Jemma’s fingers laced with Fitz’s, and with the other hand, she plugged the last piece in. A little green light on the side of the camera started blinking, and a new window opened on the computer screen.

Except there wasn’t anything to see. The new window, which displayed what the camera was registering, was entirely black. Jemma didn’t know what she had been expecting, but it was certainly wasn’t that.

“That doesn’t appear to be working.” she said, stating the obvious. “Why?” There were a million reasons that could cause an experiment to fail, but it was still a little disappointing to have worked on something for several weeks, only to find out it was not living up to your expectations.

“Is there something on the screen if I do that?” Fitz asked from the other side of the lab. He was adjusting something on the electrical wire, and the black screen suddenly turned blue, just as an infra-red camera. An infra-red camera that wasn’t picking up heat.

“No, not really– Oh, wait.” Jemma had spun the camera around so it was facing Fitz. On the screen, there was now a faint green shape among the blue. It looked more like a stain than like something defined, but it definitely wasn’t Fitz’s shape. “There’s a... I don’t really know, but it’s fairly large, and it’s on the screen, so it must mean something.” Jemma said, unsure. There was nothing in this corner of the lab that looked like it could emit particles in the other dimension.

She mentally mapped out the Playground, and in the general direction of the stain, there was only the hangar. They really didn’t have any kind of onscreen scale, but the shape looked like a long rectangle, with a few bumps here and there, not unlike a car...

“The car! Fitz, the shape, it’s Robbie’s car!” Fitz joined her to look at the screen. He wiggled the camera, but the shape was definitely out there and it definitely looked like a car.

“Yeah, you’re right!” Fitz sounded as excited as she was feeling.

“And it’d make sense...”

“...that it’s producing some kind of particle activity, because...”

“...the other dimension had something to do with the Ghost Rider in the beginning!”

They smiled at each other, proud of their work, and pleased that they were able to finish off the other’s sentences. The tenderness, however, didn’t last for long, and it quickly turned to excitement. Like always, with science, solving a problem only raised more questions. There was always more science to do!

“Alright,” Jemma said, “We should head to the garage to proceed to further testing on the car...”

At this exact moment, however, someone yelled Fitz’s name very loudly in the lab, startling the two scientists.

“Agent Fitz! There you are!” Fitz and Jemma turned reluctantly to face their visitor. Jeffrey Mace was holding a big file and showing a wicked grin.

“Uhh, can’t it wait? We’re doing something important here...” Fitz said. From experience, they both knew it wouldn’t change a thing to the Director’s immediate plans, but they had stopped being nice to Mace since he had handed Jemma to the senator Nadeer so easily.

“No, it can’t wait. We have a contact who might have a lead on what happened to Reyes. I need you to talk to him to get whatever details he has and I need you to do it now.”

“Me?” Fitz sounded distraught. “On my own?”

“To send someone who's not a field agent on his own on a mission seems wildly unprofessional of you.” Jemma said. She wouldn’t have any mercy for this man: anything he did wrong, she would be there to remind him.

“That’s true, but agent Fitz has proven very capable over the time, so I trust him. Plus, our contact was very specific: he wants to meet a scientist. Apparently, a field agent wouldn’t be able to understand... whatever he has to say.”

“Am I allowed to go with him?” Jemma asked, without even hoping. “We need to test the Particles Camera anyway, so if we can run a test while meeting the contact, it would just be a gain of time for everyone.”

“Sadly, no.” Mace didn’t look sad at all. “The contact said he wanted to meet one agent only. Besides, agent Johnson is giving an interview and showing off her powers this afternoon. I need you to check her gauntlets and do a little medical check-up, just to make sure her body is prepared for the display.”

Mace looked at Fitz and Jemma, and grinned. “Alright, agent Fitz, you’re leaving in five. Oh, and you’ll take this with you.” He fished out something in his file and threw it on the desk in front of them: it was Robbie’s car keys. “The contact insisted; you have to bring them to him so he knows you’re an actual agent, sent by SHIELD.” Fitz took the keys and shoved them grumpily in his pocket. “Agent Simmons, I expect you to report to me with agent Johnson’s results before her display starts. Thank you.”

And with these half-sincere last words, he left. Jemma automatically turned to Fitz.

“You’ll be careful.” There was a shade of worry in Jemma’s voice that felt strangely alien. Fitz seemed to pick up on her vulnerability, and he smiled reassuringly.

“Of course I’ll be careful, Jem.” His eyes were bright with tenderness.

“I mean it. This contact only wants to see one agent, and a scientist at that! It sounds an awful lot like a trap to me.”

Fitz chuckled, and stepped closer. He took her in his arms. Jemma breathed in his reassuring embrace, soothed by the tiny kisses he pressed in her hair. For about ten seconds, nothing moved, and then Jemma sighed before gently pushing him back. While Fitz started to gather around the lab everything he’d need for his mission, her eyes fell on the screen. The even blue was strangely calming; she was even able to forget her worry for a few seconds, until an orange dot crossed the screen.

“Wait,” Jemma said. “Do that again?”

“What?” Fitz had stopped walking, outside of the field of vision of the camera.

“Come in front of the camera.”

He walked again in front of the screen, more slowly. Jemma hadn’t dreamed: there was indeed an orange dot appearing on the screen, approximately on his waistline.

“Ooh, it must be the car keys! They’re showing up on the screen.” Fitz raised an eyebrow, amused. He slowly took the keys out of his pocket. The dot on the screen was indeed moving at the same time. The car keys were producing particles on the other side. They would have to study this as well.

“We’ll have to study this as well,” Fitz said, unknowingly voicing what she was thinking. “For now, I really have to go.” She must have made a face, because he added: “Despite carrying this thing in my pocket, I promise I’m not getting sucked in another dimension this time. It’ll take two hours at most, and we can test the Camghoster more thoroughly this afternoon.”

“We’re _not_ calling it the Camghoster.” She tried to glare at him, but that... wasn’t working. Her smile was definitely showing in her eyes. Fitz just winked at her.

“Yeah, sure, whatever you say, love.” He kissed her on the forehead and grabbed his jacket. “Okay, I’m going now. I’ll call you when I’m on my way back. Love you, Jemma.”

“Love you too.”

Fitz waved at her while he was leaving, and Jemma waved back with a smile. Then, she cleared away what they’d been doing: she closed the Particles Camera tab on the computer and put the device in her bag, to be ready for testing as soon as he’d come back. And finally, she stretched and put on some music, before getting up to retrieve Daisy’s gauntlets. Jemma had some work of her own to do, and she certainly wouldn’t let herself be distracted by swirling thoughts of mysterious cars or possibly deadly traps.

~

When Daisy came back from the interview, it was 10 PM. Apparently, _someone_ – and by someone, she obviously meant Mace – had called not one, not two, but three dozen interviewers from various medias and told them Quake would be absolutely _delighted_ to answer all their questions for as long as they would want her to. Needless to say, she hated it, but as the agency’s golden girl, she couldn’t exactly refuse without consequences, could she?

So she’d done it, and she’d missed dinner, and now she was famished. She went to the kitchen to grab something to eat, but in the empty corridor, she heard the sound of faint swearing coming from the lab. Something like “ _oh, bloody hell!_ ”. With a frown – because the base was mostly empty at this hour and also because the swearing sounded _British_ – she took a quick peek through the glass wall.

There was indeed no one in the lab except for Jemma – hence the British accent – who was typing furiously on a computer keyboard.

Wait. Jemma, on her own? The fact that she was working at this hour wasn’t inherently bizarre, but the fact that she was alone was more surprising: she had spent the entire medical check-up talking about Fitz and their new project, the Particles Camera, how it worked, what they were going to do with it, and all the reasons why it was awesome. The fact that Fitz was nowhere in sight was unsettling to say the least.

Daisy decided to check on her friend, just to make sure there wasn’t anything wrong. She took a tentative step towards the bench. Jemma didn’t acknowledge her presence, so she stood directly next to her and looked at the screen. Somehow, weirdly enough, it seemed like Jemma was trying to... hack something.

“Jemma?” She seemed to realize Daisy was in the room. She blinked, and looked at her friend; her eyes were tired and her make-up appeared to be slightly smudged.

“Daisy! Oh, thank goodness.” The relief on Jemma’s face was too intense. There was _definitely_ something wrong. “Can you hack into Mace’s database with this?” Jemma asked, pointing at the computer. It was some old version of the standard SHIELD computer, and Daisy had no idea if she would be able to hack anything with it, but Jemma looked so afraid...

“Probably.” It was obvious how much she needed to hear those words. “Can you just... Uh, I don’t know, explain? What you're doing here, why you're trying to hack that thing?”

“Of course. Sorry.” Jemma looked so small and miserable under the crushing weight of worry. She took a deep breath. “Fitz is not back.”

“Yeah, I kind of figured that one out already. What happened?”

“I don’t know, because Mace is keeping it from me! He told me he’d be back soon, but that was four hours ago, and... I can’t shake the feeling that there’s something wrong, and I had to do something! So, I tried to hack into Mace’s database to find Fitz’s mission orders, but...”

“Hang on,” Daisy interrupted. “You tried to _hack_ into the Director’s database? _Can you even hack?_ ”

“No! But I tried anyways, because what other options did I have?! Fitz is missing!” She added, because of course it explained everything. At this exact moment, Daisy understood very clearly that whatever Mace had said, Jemma would never let her boyfriend in danger. These two were so married it was becoming ridiculous.

“So, can you hack the details of Fitz’s mission?” Jemma said after a short moment. Daisy nodded immediately. She’d do anything for them – they’d been through so much together... they were her family. “I don’t even know where he was supposed to go – Mace said it wasn’t my business, but, you know, it sort of is.” Jemma added. “And for the record, yes, he ordered me to stay put, but if he thinks I’m going to wait...”

“Oh my god, Jemma, you’re disobeying a direct order?” It was supposed to be a joke, but Jemma was too tense to let it lighten the mood. They were a long way from their first bad girl shenanigans – and Daisy couldn’t be prouder.

“I’m getting my boyfriend back.”


End file.
